Web Panel | A New Security Moment in the Middle East

The Middle East is witnessing a serious effort to build order from within, on a scale not seen in decades. In this first session of the “Visions from Regional Capitals” web panel series, launched under SETA’s Middle East: Order from Within research agenda, the panel will discuss whether the region is entering another cycle of conflict or a search for an order built from within.

The panel will first address the defining features of the region’s current transformation. In this context, it will assess how the Iran war and the growing interconnection of conflict theatres are changing regional security, and whether regional states can take greater responsibility for producing their own security as external guarantees become less predictable. The extent to which regional ownership can work in responding to the Gaza crisis and state-building in Syria and Iraq will also be discussed.

The discussion will then turn to the region’s leading actors. Taking into account their long-standing and often competing visions of the region, the panel will discuss how, and to what extent, cooperation and competition among regional actors can be managed within a regional order built from within.